Wednesday, 25 November 2009

PRE-ORDER: Kowton – Stasis (G Mix)/Countryman [Keysound]

Keysound have stepped up a gear this year dropping more 12”s than ever before and doing it in fine style to boot, with several unique takes on the bass sounds of the underground. Starkey and Durrty Goodz dropped a killer 12” of hyperactive street bass anthems, Zomby did his aquatic gloop & bass rendition of label bosses Dusk & Blackdown, Scratcha DVA showed off the dark side of grime and Grievous Angel re-fixed a jungle anthem into a rolling garage number all to great effect. But with Kowton they come with something all together different, something that manages to sit so well with the Keysound output whilst expanding its sonic pallet.

‘Stasis (g mix)’ gets things rolling and here Kowton takes garage and deep dubbed out minimal techno and fuses it to a Youngtsa-esque half stepping dubstep sound. Lowering the tempo and upping the groove he creates a really unique zoned out number, which just rolls out like a long lost garage joint that Basic Channel and Youngsta forgot to make back in 2001. The deepness is hypnotising.

Things get minimal with ‘Countryman,’ a four to the floor pump and a relentless bass pulse replaces the garage vibes with something altogether darker and more sinister. The track builds and rolls with dub samples and a subtle groove, feeling simple it ends up greater than the sum of its parts, the minimal half step house rhythms really feel like a fresh slant on the dubstep techno sound.